I must confess that I had the battery in my laptop die this week, and it wasn't until now that I was able to buy a proper converter for my charger. That is why this entry is going to be a combination of events that happened this week (hopefully in order they occurred, if I can remember properly).

Wednesday August 30th

Notable event: Brent, Lynda and I went for a little walk. Lynda started to feel a bit tired so she headed back to the apartment, but Brent and I were up for exploring. So we decided to go for a walk, and a walk we did go on! We walked all over the area in behind our apartment, and then we walked up near the British Embassy and down the Corniche. While we were walking down the Corniche, I was curious about what was behind these big metal signs; so I found a crack and snuck through, to which I discovered the beach. After a little bit of deliberation, I hopped the fence to the beach. It was pretty late at night by this point, but it was pretty cool as Brent and I had the whole beach to ourselves! I was running up and down it, collecting sea shells and admiring the city scape as it encloses the area around the water. The whole city was lit up, and it was a beautiful night with the wind coming off the water.

Thursday August 31th

Notable event: To begin it is important to point out that Thursday in the UAE is essentially Friday, as it is the last work week. Another thing I feel to point out it was essentially our first Thursday, in a new country, with a whole group of new people (or people, others haven't seen in a while) and we're all teachers. Seriously I don't think I need to say anymore but I will. The first thing we decided to do afterschool was go to an Irish pub, which according to its advertisement is the only Irish pub in Abu Dhabi. However, there are a lot of Irish teachers in our school and according to them; this pub was not an Irish pub and I'm inclined to trust them. While I was there I grabbed some food, and enjoyed the company of many new teachers (new to me, as many were returning). Oh I think it's important to note that the only places that are allowed to serve alcohol are the hotels, so you will get small bars or establishments built inside of the hotels so they can get a liquor licence.

Later that night everyone got together for a few drinks, specifically I pre-drank with Lynda, Sayed and Brent down on the lower floor of our apartments. Once we were done we met up with a group of our friends in the tourist club area, and then made our way to Hero's. How to describe Hero's….. It's an interesting place, which is pretty much around the corner from where I live. There is a live band there and there a lot of people. When I say there are a lot of people, I really do mean it as you can barely move down there. However, though the club really wasn't my thing, I really enjoyed hanging out with everyone and getting to know them a little more!

Saturday September 1st

Luckily I really hadn't had very much to drink the night before (slowly but surely I'd like to quit drinking all together, hopefully one day) so I was able to be awake by 8:30ish, even though I was out until 2:00am the night before. I decided that I wanted to go for a walk and explore the area a little bit. Another interesting thing to note about this country is that it is very much an evening culture, unlike back home. At home, we essentially try to do everything before the end of the day, people go to work between 6:00-9:00am and everything opens in the morning and tries to close in the evening. Here (most likely due to the heat of the country), everything slowly begins to open in the afternoon and stays open as late as 11:00pm - 1:00am in the morning. So even though I decided to go for a walk, there really wasn't very much open in the area. After walking for a while I found a Starbucks around the corner!!! Usually I wouldn't be so excited for a Starbucks, but when I tell you about my coffee adventures eventually, everyone at home will have to enjoy a good laugh at my agony. So I ordered a cup of coffee, and just sat in the coffee shop in Abu Dhabi (I honestly cannot believe how lucky I am to be able to write this, it's amazing), watching people go by and relaxing. After a while I decided to leave and go exploring a bit more. After a while I found a store called the Splash, where I bought some work clothes. Once done there I returned home.

That evening I a friend and I went out and explored the city a little bit. We went to a really nice park, and walked around for a while. Once we were done there, we walked along the Corniche near the Marina Mall and it was beautiful to see the sun set on the Persian Gulf, with the breeze coming off the water. Once we were done there, we enjoyed a cup of coffee at the Khalydia mall, and finished with a walk in another mall. It was actually a really nice and eventful night.

Sunday September 2st

Notable Event: After a long day at school, it was really nice to have received a text from my Canadian friend Dianne inviting me to a drinking night over at her place. I invited Lynda, Brent and Sayed but everyone but Brent was busy; so we decided to go.

See this was a bit interesting, because I kind of knew where Dianne lived as I was at her place on the first day. However, I didn't know exactly where she lived, and the one time I was there was the day I thought I wasn't going to be able to find my home on the return trip. What also made this trip interesting is that Brent had initially thought the apartment was in a different location. So essentially this is how it goes: I told the taxi cab driver to take me to Delma Street and Al Alyna Street, opposite the trans station and he had no idea what I meant. This I think hurt Brent's confidence in me a little bit right off the bat, but we convinced the taxi driver to take us to Zayed University near Delma Street. Next strike to me, I told the taxi driver to pull over on the wrong side of the rode and everything looks kind of familiar but nothing concrete. However, I convince Brent that we were most definitely in the right are and we needed to just look around. After about 20 minutes of walking, and looking up landmarks on my phone, and then finding the bus terminal; Brent and I call the people from the party. The good news: I was right and we were in the right area. The bad news: we had undershot our initial drop off, and then walked quite a bit past it afterwards. Eventually after about another 10-15 minutes of walking we got there.

Once we were there, it was great to meet some new people I hadn't met before. Some of which, I'm still not sure of their names. We all had a few drinks, played an epic game of Taboo; let me tell you American's really get into their board games lol! We all had some fun, just hanging out and talking. Once we were done Stu, Brent and I all made our way out to catch a taxi together as we live in similar areas. Although Brent really wanted a Shawarma, so we needed to stop and grab one. It was actually pretty cheap (5 Dirham), and smelt really good; it was too late and I was too tired for one or I would have. After that we grabbed a taxi, and made our way back to our apartments. As soon as I got back I pasted out!

Hopefully I will be able to keep these entries up on a regular basis, now that I have power and the internet. If anyone would like to hear about something, or like to live vicariously through me, please ask me to try something and I'd be up for it; just leave a comment and I'll blog about it. Night